Il y a plus de vingt ans que je dis de la prose, sans que jen susse rien. I have known this these twenty years without being conscious of it. (Molière: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.)

1

Really, exclaimed Lady Ambrose, brightening, Il y a plus de vingt ans que je dis de la prose, sans que jen susse rien. And so it seems that I have known history without suspecting it, just as Mons. Jourdain talked prose.Mallock: The New Republic, bk. iii. chap. 2.

Father of Greek prose. Herodotos (B.C. 484405).

2

Father of English prose. Wycliffe (13241384); and Roger Ascham (15151568).

3

Father of French prose. Villehardouin (pron. Veal-hard-whahn.) (11671213.)